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Free Malaysia Today
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Free Malaysia Today
Cannes film shines light on secret life of migrant maids
'Mama' by Or Sinai is about a housekeeper who returns home from Israel to find her plans for her family turned upside down. (Baryo Film and TV Production pic) CANNES : Or Sinai didn't have to go far to find the subject of her acclaimed debut film about the secret lives of the millions of women who support their families back home by being domestic workers abroad. She was chatting to the 'wonderful Ukrainian woman' who looks after her mother, who has Parkinson's Disease, when the housekeeper started telling her about the lover she had taken. 'I realised that our view of migrant women is so wrong,' she told AFP at the Cannes film festival, where 'Mama' is being shown in the official selection. 'We think of them as poor women sacrificing themselves to do everything for their families. 'But actually as I researched, I realised they develop these temporary identities,' picking up a little comfort where they can. When the Ukrainian housekeeper 'started working for my parents, they were embarrassed by her and tried to behave as if she wasn't there. It was crazy,' Sinai said. 'So I started talking to her and I immediately fell in love with her because she's super funny. 'She's only three years older than me and she has such a dramatic life, which is an absurd contrast to how many people like her are in the shadows of our society' living their own hidden lives. Israel govt 'doing horrible stuff' It isn't the first time Sinai has turned received ideas upside down. She won the Cannes Festival's top prize for short films with 'Anna' in 2016, where an overworked mother heads off looking for sex in a small town after getting an unexpected afternoon off from looking after her son. 'Mama' is about a housekeeper who returns home from working for a rich couple in Israel to find her best laid plans for the family she has been bankrolling have been turned upside down in her absence. 'In her attempt to give her daughter something meaningful, she actually lost all the years with her growing up and her ability to connect with her kids,' Sinai, 40, said. Instead she finds her passive, less-than-useless husband has supplanted her as her daughter's confidant. Sinai's own best laid plans were thrown up in the air by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, with the director forced to switch the story to neighbouring Poland. Belarus-born Evegenia Dodina, who plays the housekeeper – best known as Villanelle's mother in 'Killing Eve' – has been winning glowing reviews for her 'carefully calibrated performance'. Screen magazine said: 'It's not merely that she conveys her joy and sadness, but how emotionally torn her character feels.' War closer to home in Gaza has cast a shadow over 'Mama' and other Israeli films at Cannes. Hundreds of top film figures have signed an open letter condemning Israel for committing 'genocide' in Gaza and the film industry for its 'passivity'. With scores dying every day in Israeli strikes on Gaza since the festival began last week, Sinai said it was important to make 'a clear separation between the government and the Israeli people'. 'The government is doing horrible stuff' which many people were opposed to, she told AFP. 'I wish the war would end immediately. I will always carry this on my back.' Between Ukraine and Gaza, 'it's really a miracle that we managed to make the film happen at this horrible time,' Sinai added. 'The film is about wanting people to feel love for other people and that's the only thing I can do, to spread love instead of war.'
The Guardian
14-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘If I didn't have kids, I am dead': Jasmine's dreams turned into nightmare six weeks after arriving in Australia
Jasmine* arrived in Australia two years ago expecting to marry the partner who brought her here. After six weeks, 'things changed drastically'. 'He started to abuse me, abuse my children,' she says. On a temporary visa with no family in the country or money of her own, she was unable to work so she stayed at home. When her partner kicked her and her two young sons out, in an instant they faced the threat of homelessness. 'I was feeling like, if I didn't have kids, I am dead. Officially dead.' Jasmine's experience is not unusual. One year ago the Adira Centre in New South Wales opened its doors, pitching itself as the state's first multicultural centre for domestic and family violence. It was backed by $4.4m in funding for three years in a Minns Labor government election promise. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email For years Settlement Services International had advocated to address a support gap for migrant and refugee women and children experiencing domestic violence. 'Migrants and refugee women and children have a lot of structural barriers to access,' Gulnara Abbasova, the director of the centre, says. '[And] there are a lot of cultural considerations.' Language, traumatic migration journeys, previous exposure to violence and community dynamics all impact how they seek help, Abbasova explains, 'if they do at all'. Sabrina* did not know that controlling behaviours and emotional abuse are forms of domestic violence. And when she did leave her former partner, language was a barrier to finding help and her family challenged her decision. She is now part of the centre's lived experience advisory group. Her work includes 'explaining how and what we went through', so the centre can improve processes for different women from different backgrounds. In its first year, the centre has directly supported about 450 women and children across 20 different languages. Its information sessions on domestic and family violence have reached about 1,000 people. Abbasova says understanding cultural barriers is really important. And structural barriers can hinder a migrant's ability to access crucial services. Between police, courts, the health system and child protection services, 'navigating our complex systems is a maze for any woman,' Abbasova says. Then factor in being new to Australia, with no supports, no family relations, and limited language to converse. 'It is hard.' About 40% of women the centre has supported are on temporary visas. 'Issues around Medicare, Centrelink, crisis accommodation is huge,' Abbasova says. A lack of avenues for help can make it harder for a woman to leave an abusive partner or for support centres to direct her towards assistance. 'If you are faced with a decision of leaving the perpetrator and becoming homeless, it is a really tough call to make,' Abbasova says. Jasmine felt she had no options. 'I can't do anything. No one is hearing me out,' she recalls. 'I said to many [different local services] that I'm going to be homeless.' She feared no one would help. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'I couldn't get a job. So I started cleaning: any shifts that might be able to cover me and the kids, their needs. It was the biggest struggle of my life.' She reached out to help services online, including SSI who connected her to the Adira Centre. Jasmine was helped with organising food vouchers, training for employment and tuition for her children. An Adira support worker accompanied her to the police station, and connected her with a Legal Aid solicitor to assist with her visa. 'I started to have this chance to work, to do more jobs, to figure out what to do,' Jasmine says. 'They helped me sort out, if not money, how to figure out what to do … and how to deal with and explore life here, because I didn't know.' The centre 'brought me back to life', she says. Abbasova says much of the centre's resources goes into 'really intense advocacy for clients'. 'It's not just one phone call and referral to crisis accommodation,' she says. Sometimes it can take 15 to 20 phone calls to various services, 'and it's a no at every turn because of the limitations around visa status in particular'. The centre handles casework in the western Sydney region. It also collaborates with domestic and family violence services by sending practitioners with related cultural and migration expertise. Not only does that provide positive outcomes for the women, Abbasova says, but it also 'builds the capacity of that service that we work with', improving cultural awareness and helping make the issue everyone's responsibility. The NSW minister for the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault, Jodie Harrison, says the government knows the importance of culturally appropriate responses for multicultural communities. 'Women from migrant and refugee backgrounds are less likely to report violence or seek help due to language barriers, cultural stigma, concerns about visa and residency status, financial insecurity and other cultural reasons.' Abbasova says other states also have specialist response services for migrant women, including the SSI in Queensland and InTouch in Victoria. 'But they don't have that comprehensive approach that we apply,' she says. *Jasmine and Sabrina are pseudonyms In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women's Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via
